Time to get dirty
The Test Drive series of racing games has seemingly been around forever and has spawned a number of decent titles, earning itself a spot on the list of driving legends alongside Outrun and the Need for Speed franchise. This third entry in the off road spinoff series isn't all that spectacular however, and is perhaps only really of interest to diehard fans and collectors. As you'd expect, this one takes you off the beaten track a bit, and gives you the chance to take to the wheel of some beefy off-road vehicles. You've got cars from the likes of Nissan, Jeep and Ford, with over twenty five to check out, each with their own unique characteristics, such as speed, handling and so on. You've got eleven different off road tracks to try out too, and which take you through mountains, forests and other such environments in one of two main modes, arcade and championship. The cars can all be customized to some extent, and you can play around with the color, engine, tires, suspension and other elements in order to get them how you want. For the most part, this is a pretty standard racing game, no more and no less. The range of vehicles to try is extensive enough to keep the average punter happy for a while, and the tracks are quite varied and interesting to drive around. The customization options too add some appeal to things, while the visuals are decent enough. The sense of speed is lower than other racing games, due to the nature of the vehicles, but there's a lot of jumping around to make up for this, while the physics system is decent, if a little unpredictable. At the end of the day though, this is just a bit too ordinary for its own good and doesn't really stay in the memory.
